Legalizing pot would free up police to fight violent crime, law enforcement group says - Legalizing marijuana would put a big dent in drug cartels and free up police, prosecutors and judges to go after violent crimes, a law enforcement group said.

Actually everyone with an IQ over 60 who doesn't make money off the illegality of pot says this. The only ones against it are the fearmongering Republicans and the law enforcement folks who know their budgets will go down if they stop harassing pot smokers.

Christ why the fuck can't people see that drug abuse is a psychological/medical problem not a criminal problem. If they stop abusing they'll stop doing crimes to support their habit. Well, unless they enjoy robbing and stealing shit anyway.

Well, considering doing a line of coke isn't even close to the same thing as raping or murdering somebody since oh i don't know, you're RAPING or MURDERING a person and not putting a powder up your nose. but yeah, other than that good analogy.

The concept that you should base the legality of something on the financial positives and negatives it creates is quite possible the most unethical thing you can possible say and is the entire reason we have this problem to begin with.

You dont get to say "oh its the military industrial complex profiting so they want it to stay illegal!" and say thats bad, and then turn around and say "it would bring the government more money if we taxed it!" and say thats good. That is called being hypocritical.

Again, to make sure there are no misunderstandings, criminalizing or decriminalizing something for the purpose of generating a profit is unethical, immoral and quite possibly unconstitutional.

If you noticed, the bulk of what I said was to re-direct the money once used to incarcerate these people (court time wasted/jail time etc) could be used to help these people stay off the streets, put them through rehab, re-educate them, maybe help them get a job and maybe even provide clean needles/checks for poison in drugs, etc etc...

You know, things that can help people rather than fuck them over for profit. And since we're going to go all "industrial complex" now, the prison industrial complex profits off of these peoples demise. They want them to return to jail.

What is worse, 'profiting' off of legalizing/decriminalizing drugs, or 'profiting' off of people in their lowest of lows.

What is worse, 'profiting' off of legalizing/decriminalizing drugs, or 'profiting' off of people in their lowest of lows.

You are still profiting off of it either way. And neither is worse than the other. My point is that you should not be basing the validity of a law on how much money it makes. That sets a pretty terrible precedent, don't you think?

Fine, let's use the word revenue. Revenue that is re-invested into a community through social programs or revenue that goes to the 'the prison industrial complex', where their main goal is not rehabilitation.

You turned the argument into semantics about profit, when the original point is the OP WANTED TO PUT DRUG USERS IN JAIL FOR LIFE. I disagree with that, feel there are better alternatives that can help people and communities, for instance, decriminalization.

I don't think anyone should profit off of prison, laws etc etc, let me make that clear. My argument to the OP was that instead of wasting money on incarcerating people for non-violent drug offenses, decriminalize drugs, and the courts will be cleared up. That's all. Sorry if I wrote the words profit, revenue etc etc.

Also, what's your opinion on parking tickets? Because they base those laws off of how much money they can generate. I bring this up because its very similar to what happens when you decriminalize drugs (pot at least). In Massachusetts people with under an ounce with no intent to sell get a citation similar to a parking ticket. Can we agree this is a better alternative to private prison corporations profiting off of incarcerating people?

When it comes down to it, I believe all politics equal how much money can be generated or how much money will be lost. So the greater problem here is not drug offenders, its politics in general? Or am I wrong to assume this.